Cleveland, Ohio -- Super Bowl XLVIII will be celebrated outside in a
northern climate, the way God intended football to be played. Every
sportswriter covering the game will be busy analyzing, predicting and breaking
down every aspect of the game. We'll leave the offensive schemes, blitz
possibilities and rushing stats alone in order to bring you a breakdown of
trivia, entertainment and factoids: It's our annual 'Everything You Always
Wanted to Know About the Super Bowl But Were Afraid to Ask' feature.

First, the basics: The game pits the champions of the
American Football Conference and the National Football Conference: The AFC's Denver
Broncos (15-3) vs. the NFC's Seattle Seahawks (15-3). Kickoff is 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 2, in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The game will be
broadcast on Fox (locally, WJW, Channel 8.)

1. Dome? We don't
need no stinking dome. The game has been played outside and has been in the
north – but this is the first time it's outside in the north. New Jersey
becomes the 10th state to host a Super Bowl. With the exception of Indiana,
Michigan and Minnesota, the game is always in warmer climes.

2. Coin toss: In
47 Super Bowls, heads has turned up 24 times and tails 23.

3. Have a suite time!
Ebay listings included a 30-person suite (24 seats plus six standing-room-only)
with food and beverage for $508,265. That's only $16,942.17 per person.

4. Favorite: To show
how close this game is projected to be, bookmakers opened with Seattle as a
slight, 1-point favorite, but within days the line jumped to favor Denver.

5. How much!? Every
year you think this figure can't go up, and every year it seems to. A 30-second
ad spot is going for about $4 million. That's $133,333.33 per second.

6. Heading west: It's
only the sixth time two teams from west of the Mississippi have met in the
Super Bowl. The others: San Diego-San Francisco (1995), San Francisco-Denver
(1990), Dallas-Denver (1978), Oakland-Minnesota (1977) and Minnesota-Kansas
City (1970).

7. Halftime
spotlight: Halftime performer is Bruno Mars, with an appearance by the Red
Hot Chili Peppers. No word on whether the Chili Peppers will go shirtless.

8. Forecasting: For
weeks, AccuWeather has been updating willitsnow.com to predict the likelihood
of snow at the stadium on game day.

9. Stadium vs. snow: MetLife
Stadium will have 1,600 workers on standby to shovel and get things ready in
case of snowy weather. Among the snow-melting machines that could be used is
one that can melt 600 tons of snow per hour.

10. Alternative TV I:
Puppy Bowl is back. Check out all the pooches scampering, lumbering and
thundering to the goal line on the annual Animal Planet show that drew 12.4
million viewers in 2013. Back are favorites like the water-bowl cam, which
never gets old. New this year is the Puppy Fantasy League. Yes, there is a fantasy league for this game. Puppy Bowl X
airs 3-5 p.m., with subsequent repeat viewings.

11. Alternative TV II:
Not to be outdone, the Hallmark Channel is airing the inaugural Kitten Bowl
at noon. An MVK will be chosen. The show is hosted by Beth Stern, wife of
talk-show host Howard Stern. Go to hallmarkchannel.com/kittenbowl.

12. Know your
mascots: Blitz and Miles are mascots for the Seahawks and Broncos,
respectively. They were created within four months of each other in the late
1990s.

16. Debt levels: According
to a 2010 story, U.S. News & World Report says Denver and Seattle ranked among
the nation's worst cities with highest average debt levels. The magazine cited
Experian's figures in the ranking, which did not include mortgages. Residents
in both cities had an average debt per person topping $26,000.

18. To the victors!
The winning team gets the Tiffany-made Vince Lombardi Trophy. Last year, the
bonuses weren't bad: Players from the championship team earned $88,000 apiece
while losers received $44,000.

19. City connections:
Producers for television's "Frasier" originally wanted to base the show in
Denver, but settled on Seattle. And singer Judy Collins was born in Seattle,
and grew up and graduated from high school in Denver.

21. Weather: On
Feb. 2, 2013, temperatures hovered in the 20s in the lovely confines of East
Rutherford, N.J., with no blizzard or snowpocalypse.

22. Ticket pie: The
Super Bowl ticket pie breaks down like this: The Broncos and Seahawks get 35
percent. Host teams – this year the (New York) Giants and Jets – divvy about 6 percent.
The remaining 28 teams split more than 33 percent, and the NFL retains about 25
percent. That leaves about 1 percent for the adoring public.

23. Celebs in ads: Celebrities
to look for in ads include Stephen Colbert and Laurence Fishburne.

24. The
past: Denver has played in six Super Bowls; Seattle, one.

25. The
present: Denver is considered the home team and will wear orange jerseys.

26. Tuning in: Last
year, Baltimore topped San Francisco 34-31 in a game that pitted the brothers
Harbaugh as head coaches. It drew a 48.1 rating and 71 share. Translation: One
rating point equals 1 percent of approximately 114.7 million television homes.
Share means that of televisions that were on at the time, 71 percent were
showing the Super Bowl. Nielsen Co. figures said 108.4 million total viewers
saw the game.

27. Animal
attractions: It's only the third time both nicknames of the teams in the
game are animals. (Chicago Bears-Indianapolis Colts in 2007 and Denver Broncos-Atlanta
Falcons in 1999.)

28. Gatorade bets:
Yes, you can wager the type of Gatorade dumped on the winning coach.
Clear/water is a 2-1 favorite. Other options: Orange (3-1), yellow (3-1), red
(5-1), blue (7-1) and green (10-1). "I remember when that stuff first came
out," analyst Matt Millen pontificated during this year's Orange Bowl featuring
Ohio State and Clemson. "I drank it all the time. That stuff is awesome."

29. Praying, playing:
According to Public Religion Research Institute via Religion News Service:
"26 percent (including one in three football fans) say they
pray to God to help their team."

30. Total coverage:
The Super Bowl Host Committee – charged with planning, logistics and marketing
surrounding the game - has 35 interns. For Media Day on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2,000
members of the press were expected to attend.

31. Protection: The
New Jersey State Police will have more than 500 officers at MetLife Stadium on
game day.

32. Wacky wagers: What
will happen with the Dow Jones the day after the Super Bowl? (Even
money says it will go down.) Will the game have more than or fewer than 112
million average viewers? Will any player receive a penalty for excessive
celebration? ('No' is the favored bet here.) What will Bruno Mars be wearing on
his head at the start of his halftime celebration? (options are fedora, fur
hat, tuque, no hat). And this gem: How many times will Peyton Manning yell
'Omaha!' from the line of scrimmage? (Over/under is 27.5.) These are all real
wagering options. If you bet them, you might have a gambling problem.

33.Food, food, food: According to the
National Restaurant Association, the top three foods in Super-Bowl watching homes
during the game are 1. Salsas, dips or spreads; 2. Chicken wings; 3. Pizza. The
association also says more Americans will order takeout or delivery from a
restaurant during the game compared to those who will go to a restaurant or bar
by a 4-1 ratio.

34. Winging it: About
1.25 billion – yes, billion - chicken wings will be chomped on this weekend,
according to the National Chicken Council's 2014 Wing Report. The report says
that is about 20 million
more wings than were eaten during last year's game. The association says that
is the equivalent of piling 572 wings on each seat in every NFL stadium. And
the favorite flavor is Buffalo-style.

38. Never say never?
There has never been overtime in a Super Bowl, nor has there been a shutout.

39. Putting money
where the mouth is: The perfect bet between Seattle's
Ed Murray and Denver's Michael Hancock, or senators from each state, would be a case of wine from Washington
vs. a case of beer from Colorado. Washington-state wine is some of the best in
the country, while Colorado brewers rank high at the Great American Beer
Festival held annually in Denver.

40. Team history:
The Broncos have been around since 1960, the Seahawks since 1976.

41. Record breaker? The
coldest temperature at a Super Bowl for a non-domed stadium occurred in 1972 in
New Orleans, where the high was 43 and the low was 24. Look for that record to
be broken by kickoff. February in New Jersey? Fuhgeddaboutit.

42. Post-game watching:
Too logy to get off the couch? The coveted post-game spot, which hopes to
rake in all the viewers who are still stretched out on the sofa, is a pair of
offbeat 30-minute sitcoms: "New Girl" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

43. Horsing around:
Denver will fly in its horse mascot, Thunder, to the game. The animal weighs
about 900 pounds – about as much as three offensive lineman.

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